When we talk about a "successful" person, we're typically talking about someone with billions in their bank account, someone who's authored multiple bestsellers, or maybe someone who's in charge of an entire nation.

But if you ask people who fit the conventional definition of a successful individual, many will tell you that those achievements aren't what make them feel accomplished.

Billionaire Richard Branson believes success is about happiness.

"Too many people measure how successful they are by how much money they make or the people that they associate with," he wrote on LinkedIn. "In my opinion, true success should be measured by how happy you are."

Huffington says that while we tend to think of success along two metrics — money and power — we need to add a third.

"To live the lives we truly want and deserve, and not just the lives we settle for, we need a Third Metric," she told Forbes' Dan Schawbel, "a third measure of success that goes beyond the two metrics of money and power, and consists of four pillars: well-being, wisdom, wonder, and giving."

Together, those factors help you to take care of your psychological life and truly be successful, as the title of her 2014 book, "Thrive," suggests.

"To me, the definition of success is waking up in the morning with a smile on your face, knowing it's going to be a great day. I was happy and felt like I was successful when I was poor, living six guys in a three-bedroom apartment, sleeping on the floor."

President Barack Obama aims to change people's lives.

President Barack Obama holds his final news conference at the White House in Washington, U.S., January 18, 2017.
REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Obama once held the highest office in the land — but he doesn't equate power with success.

At the 2012 Democratic National Convention, First Lady Michelle Obama told the audience that her husband "started his career by turning down high-paying jobs and instead working in struggling neighborhoods where a steel plant had shut down."

She went on: "For Barack, success isn't about how much money you make. It's about the difference you make in people's lives."

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says empathy is crucial to success.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said people cannot succeed without showing empathy. He realized the importance of empathy at 29, after he and his wife, Anupama, gave birth to their first son with cerebral palsy, which causes movement disorders.

While Nadella struggled with his son's condition at first, he realized he needed to step up and see the world through another point of view. Empathy also allows businesses to become successful, as it allows them to understand the unmet, unarticulated needs of customers.

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